The present invention relates generally to cylindrical member processing apparatus and more specifically to such apparatus which is adapted to clamp, operate upon and transport a plurality of cylindrical workpieces such as tubing in a substantially flat array.
Numerous products require tubing in relatively large quantities such as automobiles, refrigeration apparatus or the like for a variety of applications such as fluid lines, coils, etc. These varied applications require tubes of various lengths and diameters to be subjected to a variety of manufacturing operations including cutting, shaping, applying end fittings and other such operations. As large quantities of such tubing members may be required in these applications, automated machinery has been developed for processing these tubes.
In order to fabricate these tubes, relatively long lengths of tubing, which may be received either as straight lengths of 100 or more feet or in coils of several thousand feet, must first be cut to length. In one form this has been accomplished by assembling a large number of such tubes in a bundle and then severing the appropriate lengths from the bundle. While this enables numerous lengths of tubes to be cut in a single operation, it is difficult to clamp the bundle of tubes as well as to advance the bundle for subsequent cuts. Further, the subsequent processing apparatus generally requires the cut tubes be handled individually. Thus, separate feed apparatus must be provided to receive these bundles and feed individual tubes to subsequent operation performing apparatus.
Another form of sectioning these lengths of tubing involves feeding a single tube member into cut off means which severs appropriate individual lengths thereof. Additional apparatus then advances each tube individually to subsequent processing equipment. While this eliminates the handling problems associated with the bundle cut off method described above, it requires a substantially greater amount of time as only a single length of tubing is severed at a time. Thus, problems are encountered in attempting to operate the cut off machinery at speeds sufficient to maintain an adequate supply to the subsequent processing apparatus.
Also, in both of the above operations, the apparatus requires relatively complex measurements, adjustments, test runs, etc., in order to alter production from one tubing length and/or diameter to another thus requiring substantial machine downtime.
Accordingly, the present invention provides apparatus which is uniquely adapted for high volume production of cylindrical members such as tubing or the like yet affords an extremely simple means for altering the lengths of tubing being processed as well as facilitating quick changeover from one diameter tubing to another without requiring any complex measuring or adjustment operations. Further, the present invention provides clamp means which enables groups of tubes to be processed simultaneously through the machine in a substantially flat array thereby facilitating feed to subsequent processing apparatus as well as enabling the feed apparatus to keep pace with subsequent operation performing means. Thus, the present invention offers a machine which is extremely flexible in that it is capable of handling tubing of a wide variety of lengths with equal ease and further incorporates features which allow production to be rapidly shifted from one size of tubing to another with a minimum of downtime. Further, the feed apparatus of the present invention also includes means for sensing the exhaustion of material supply thereto which means may be coupled to an alarm to alert the operator so as to enable him to replenish the material supply with minimal loss of production.
Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent description and the appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.